Moonstruck - Stranger Things

Escape|11

D U S T I N

"Hey, Dusty," is the first thing I hear, before I shoot up from my spot on the ground. I look around, but am met with nothing but darkness. I do, however, see a pair of brown eyes looking straight at me. "What, do you prefer dusting pan, squishy, or toothless? I haven't seen you yet, but your voice and mind do tell me some things about your appearance."
"Try to be a little more subtle next time you wake me up?" I say, scratching the back of my neck. Gracie just scoffs, and I hear her slide something over to me.
"Well, I didn't think you'd want to miss the food they gave us. There's the usual unknown slimy substance, but this time they were nice enough, and stupid enough, to give us some chicken," she says, and I start to question in my mind how giving us chicken would be stupid. Then a sudden realization came to my mind when I hear the bone scratching in between her teeth.

"You want to break out of here," I say, and I can almost hear the disappointment in her breath.
"No, I just like to chew in chicken bones for fun. Yes, I want to break out of here. I can't spend another hour trapped in this dark room. No, once we get out of here, I'm running off, and I may have to use the chicken bone to stab some people on the way."

There's a lot of things to like about this girl, but her sudden outbreaks of sarcasm and just plain bad-A is what I like about her most.

"So is that the plan?" I ask, my mouth full of chicken. "To pick the lock with a chicken bone, kill some people, and make a run for it?"

"Pretty much," she says, standing up and walking around the room. She has her hand on the wall, probably feeling for a door handle or something. "But tell me, Dusty, do you have a better plan?"

I remain in the floor, thinking, but I can't come up with anything. The only thing we have to lose is our sad teenage lives, but the thing we have to win is our freedom from this evil place.
"Your plan it is," I say, standing up and feeling around the walls. I don't feel any sort of door handle, but what I do feel is a vent. It, of course, has a lock on it. Now all we need to do is unlock it, crawl through, and we're free. And luckily, it's big enough for us both to fit in.

"Hey, Gingerbread, come see this."
"Gingerbread?" She asks with a slight giggle in her tone.
"Well, assuming that you have red hair and your name starts with a G and you call me dusty-"
"I like it," she says, and I smile to myself. I hear her feeling the vent, with a slight gasp of hope in her voice.
"Chicken bone," she demands, and I hand mine to her. I hear her fiddle around with it, since mine is sharper, trying to find the key-hole. I wait with anticipation for about a minute before the noises stop and I hear the lock open. "Yes!" She exclaims to herself, and hands the chicken bone back to me.

"Now come on, Dusty. We may die tonight, but that's better than spending eternity in that little room," she says, and with that, Gracie begins to crawl. Realization hits me, and I ask myself how in the world I ended up here.

. . .
"This is mental," I mutter, only earning a "shut up," from Gracie.
I look past her silhouette, and see the light at the end of the tunnel. Assuming that we aren't dying, I'm taking that as a good sign.

"Okay, once we get to the other vent door, I'll make sure the coast is clear. If it is, we jump out and start running. If it isn't, then we keep crawling until we find another one," she orders, and I just nod, even though I know she can't see me. When we get to the door, I see an empty hall. To the left, about 300 feet down the hall, I see doors. They have an exit sign over them, and I know that they're our ticket out. I look over at Gracie, and I can actually see her face now. I was right, she does have red hair. And she has these radiant brown eyes. I feel warm inside, but I also feel strange. It's like if I don't be careful, she could slip out of my reach in minutes.